Rubio To Criticize But Not Offer Alternative

Even though he says, “We don’t just want to be the opposition. We want to be the alternative,” there is no alternative in GOP sight, as Greg Sargent writes:

Rubio will tell us that Obama’s agenda constitutes “big government.” As Rubio puts it to the Weekly Standard, he will tell us that “limited government, free enterprise is the best way to give people the opportunity to achieve a middle class lifestyle.” He will claim that “pro-growth” policies — not new revenues from the wealthy — are the key to reining in our fiscal problems.

If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve been hearing these arguments since the beginning of the Obama presidency and before. Rubio himself tells us that he wants the GOP to offer an “alternative.” But this alternative looks almost identical to the anything-but-Obama’s-policies, get-government-out-of-the-way rhetoric that was defeated soundly in the last election. As long as Republicans remain tied to reflexive government-is-bad rhetoric, they will struggle to articulate a positive role government can play in people’s lives.